Drier for sheet material with a burner and air nozzle



DRIER FOR SHEET MATERIAL WITH A BURNER AND AIR NOZZLE Filed June 6, 1968 W. G. WISE May 5, 1970 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 [III fill/Ill //l///////! INVENTOR 2 WALTER G. WISE BY wnduwmafim MW ATTORNEYS May 5, 1970 W. G. WISE 3,510,113

DRIER FOR SHEET MATERIAL WITH A BURNER AND AIR NOZZLE Filed June 6, 1968 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Fig. 3

INVENTOR WALTER G. WISE BY woodman, wdumrfijuwww ATTORNEYS May 5, 1970 w. WISE DRIER FOR SHEET MATERIAL WITH A BURNER AND AIR NOZZLE 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed June 6, 1968 IIIIIIIII' Fig 6 INVENTOR WALTER. G. WISE BY 20m wbzkmiflwu mw bw ATTORNEYS y 5, 1970 w. G. WISE 3,510,113

DRIER FoR sHEET MATERIAL WITH A BURNER AND AIR NOZZLE Filed June 6, 1968 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Fig. 8

200 Pi 9 g INVENTOR WALTER G. WISE BY wm wI-M, mama mm zw ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,510,113 DRIER FOR SHEET MATERIAL WITH A BURNER AND AIR NOZZLE Walter G. Wise, P.O. Box 27066, Indianapolis, Ind. 46327 Filed June 6, 1968, Ser. No. 734,916 Int. Cl. F26b 13/22; F27b 9/28 US. Cl. 2633 8 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Apparatus for heating and/or drying a sheet of material including a gas burner and a fresh air nozzle both of which exhaust at the entrance of a tunnel through which the material moves. The gas burner is positioned between the nozzle and the material and exhausts its products of combustion almost parallel to the direction of movement of the material while the fresh air nozzle is arranged at an approximate 45 degree angle of exhaust.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention This invention relates to apparatus for heating sheet material (both separate pieces and continuous strips) and to apparatus for drying printing inks, lacquer, enamel, paint, varnish and other marking and coating material which has been printed or placed on paper, aluminum roofing, plastic, cellophane, etc.

Description of the prior art It has been the practice in the printing industry to dry the ink on a printed web by burningthe volatile portions of the ink. Thus the web is printed with the ink and is then subjected to theat sufficient to evaporate and burn the volatile components of the ink. Such conventional printing and drying apparatus are capable of relatively low web feeding speeds. One limiting factor on the speed of the web is the fact that at higher speeds the combustion of the volatile components cannot be confined to the furnace producing a fire hazard.

The method and apparatus described and claimed in my copending application Ser. No. 557,053 filed June 13, 1966, now US. Pat. No. 3,390,465 makes possible a substantial increase in the speed of drying printing inks and the like and also provides greater safety in such drying. Some of the other advantages of the method and apparatus of my copending application are reduced size and reduced cost as well as greater simplicity of drying apparatus. The present invention is an improvement on the invention of my prior application and makes possible substantially greater increased speeds of drying as well as substantially smaller or shorter drying apparatus.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION One embodiment of this invention might involve in apparatus for drying printing ink and the like after such ink has been applied to a material, said apparatus including a gas burner, a fresh air nozzle positioned adjacent said gas burner, means for moving material in a given direction of movement past said gas burner and nozzle, said gas burner being arranged to exhaust its hot products of combustion at said material, said nozzle being arranged to exhaust a slab of fresh air at said material but also across the path of the products of combustion as they leave said gas burner so as to mix said fresh air and said products prior to their moving against said material; the improvement which comprises said fresh air nozzle being positioned to exhaust its slab of fresh air in a direction which has a component in the direction of movement of said material, said gas burner being positioned between said nozzle and said material with its exhaust aimed at a more acute angle relative to the direction of movement of said material than the exhaust of said nozzle.

A primary object of this invention is to provide an improved apparatus for drying printing inks and the like.

Another object of this invention is to provide drier apparatus which by reason of this invention can be much smaller and simpler than prior art apparatus.

Still another object of this invention is to provide drier apparatus which is less apt and less capable of damaging paper carrying the printing inks because of removal of moisture from the paper.

Still a further object of this invention is to provide improved heating apparatus for heating the surface of amaterial.

Related object and advantages will appear as the description proceeds.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The full nature of the invention will be understood from the accompanying drawings and the following description and claims.

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of the drier of the present invention with portions broken away to show internal construction.

FIG. 2 is a vertical section taken along the line 22 of FIG. 1 in the direction of the arrows.

FIG. 3 is a vertical section taken along the line 3-3 of FIG. 2 in the direction of the arrows.

FIG. 4A is an enlarged detail side elevational fragmentary view of an air knife forming a part of the structure of FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 4B is a transverse section taken along the line 4B4B of FIG. 4A.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged view of a portion of the structure illustrated in FIG. 2.

FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. 1 of an alternative embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a vertical section taken along the line 7-7 of FIG. 6 in the direction of the arrows.

FIG. 8 is a vertical section taken along the line 88 of FIG. 7 in the direction of the arrows.

FIG. 9 is a view similar to FIG. 2 of still another alternative embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS For the purposes of promoting an understanding of the principles of the invention, reference will now be made to the embodiment illustrated in the drawing and specific language will be used to describe the same. It

will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the invention is thereby intended, such alterations and further modifications in the illustrated device, and such further applications of the principles of the invention as illustrated therein being contemplated as would normally occur to one skilled in the art to which the invention relates.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, there is illustrated in FIG. 1 a drier which includes a housing 11 having a partitioning element 12 mounted therein so as to define a tunnel 13. Mounted on the housing 11 and adjacent the entrance 15 to the tunnel 13 are a gas burner 16 and an air nozzle 17.

Referring to FIG. 5, the gas burner 16 includes a horizontal tube or conduit 20 which is drilled to provide a plurality of orifices 21 which are protected by a shield or shields 22 to provide an elongated area of generally U-shaped cross section (as shown in FIG. 5) for the burning of gases. Connected to the conduit 20 is a conduit 23 (FIG. 3) which is in turn connected to a venturi proportional mixer arrangement 24. Gas is provided to the gas-air mixer arrangement 24 through a conduit 25 which is controlled by a valve 26. Air is provided to the mixer 22 through a conduit 27 which is controlled by a butterfly valve 30. The conduit 27 receives its pressurized air through a conduit 31 which is connected to a blower 32. The blower 32 also supplies pressurized air to the air nozzle 17 through the conduit 31 and conduits 35 and 36. The amount of pressurized air supplied is controlled by the butterfly valve 37 located in the conduit 35.

The material 40 to be heated or having printing ink thereon to be dried moves into the housing 11 through the opening 41 and out of the housing through the opening 42. Adjacent the exit opening 42 is positioned an air knife 45 which consists of a conduit having a plurality of openings or orifices 46 as shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B, said orifices or openings being arranged with their axes at the angle shown at 50. The air knife 45 is connected to the conduit 35 by means of a conduit 51. It will be noted that the air knife 45 is mounted within an exhaust or exit passageway 52 defined by the housing 11 and by partitioning member 12.

A spark ignitor 55 is mounted on the housing 11 and can cooperate with a flame rod or means 56 for sensing the presence of flame in the U-shaped indentation 25. The means 55 and 56 may be, for example, a 4 EN 6 mechanism produced by Pyronics, Inc. of Cleveland, Ohio. When this mechanism is properly conditioned, the spark ignitor 55 sparks until such time as the flame rod 56 senses the presence of a flame. The flame rod 56 also functions to shut off fuel to the present apparatus by closing the valve 26 when flame failure occurs. The venturi gas mixer arrangement 24 may be, for example, manufactured by Western Products, Inc. of New Castle, Ind. and may be a standard 2-inch iron pipe proportional mixer. The blower 32 may be a suitable blower capable of producing, for example, 700 cubic foot per minute at 1.5 pounds per square inch pressure gauge.

In the illustrated embodiment of the invention, the tunnel 13 is lined with high heat resistant insulating mate rial and is so constructed as to provide an enlarging tapering configuration at the portion 60 of the element 12 so that in the illustrated embodiment the angle of the portion 60 relative to the horizontal web 40 (and also relative to the bottom 59 of housing 11) is an upwardly tapering angle of approximately two to four degrees for approximately six to eight inches from the entrance 15 of the tunnel. The illustrated embodiment of the invention continues on with a lesser tapering configuration at 61 of approximately 30 minute angle of divergence to a total tunner length in the illustrated embodiment of 2 feet. Of course, in various applications of this invention, the length of the tunnel 13 will be determined by press speed, paper weight, ink type and thickness of paper. The above mentioned dimension of length of tunnel is measured from the entrance 15 to the web exit 42 and other specific dimensions of the present specific embodiment of this drier may be scaled accordingly. The purpose in having a diverging configuration in the tunnel 13 is to increase the velocity and turbulence of the hot gases moving through the tunnel which has been found to produce faster more eflicient heating of the surface of the web or faster drying of the ink or the like on the web 40.

It is believed that effective drying can be facilitated if the divergence of the tunnel is between one and fifteen degrees.

A very important feature of the present invention is the fact that the burner 16 is located between the fresh air nozzle 17 and the web 40 as the web moves into the drier and further that the burner 16 exhausts in a direction which is almost parallel to the direction of movement of the web 40. The best positioning of the gas burner 16 has been found to be as close to the web 40 as possible without contacting the web 40. It has been found that by placing the burner 16 in the illustrated position, the fresh air flow out of the nozzle 17 mixes with the products of combustion from the burner and the mixture is driven hard against the web 40 causing the mixture of the products of combustion and the fresh air to cut through or break through the coating of ambient air on the surface of the web 40 as it moves into the present drier.

Although the theory expressed in the preceding sentence is believed to be correct it is perhaps sufficient to say that the locating of the burner 16 as illustrated and at the angle illustrated effects much improved drying over the almost degree angle specific positioning of the burner illustrated in my prior copending application. It has been found for example, in one specific application of the present invention that the length of the drier can be reduced from six to eight times as compared to the specific drier illustrated in my prior copending application which in itself is a very substantial improvement over the prior art, this length of reduction being possible because drying is effected at a higher rate with the same web speed and effected at a higher rate with the same web speed and because the effectiveness of drying is greater by the present arrangement. It will be noted that the angle of exhaust of the fresh air nozzle 17 is at approximately 45 degrees relative to the horizontal web 40 whereas the angle of the fresh air nozzle in the specific embodiment illustrated in my preceding copending application was approximately 35 degrees relative to the vertical or a normal line drawn through a web. The range of effectiveness of the present invention with the burner 16 located as it is perhaps between 20 to 75 degrees angle between the fresh air nozzle 17 exhaust axis 70 (FIG. 5) and the web 40.

The function of the air knife 45 is to remove the hot gases from the surface of the web 40 and to cause them to be directed up the exhaust 52. Placing the exhaust apertures at the angle illustrated in FIG. 2 has been found to effectively accomplish this purpose. Also the air knife acts to lower the exhaust stack temperature. The air knife may have the configuration shown in FIGS. 2 and 4 or it may have the same construction as the fresh air nozzle 17 The embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 6, 7 and 8 is generally the same in function and structure as that illustrated in FIGS. 1-5 except that a double set of burners and pressure nozzles are provided at and 101. The various angles of the burners may be as described above in connection with FIGS. 15 or in the case of the burner and fresh air nozzle 101 an arrangement of burner and fresh air nozzle similar to my preceding copending application may be used. This is believed appropriate because the ambient air coating on the web has already been removed by the burner-fresh-air-nozzle combination 100. It should be noted that any of the embodiments of the present invention illustrated in this application may use exhaust fans if desired to better move the air through the vertical stack 52 and the corresponding stacks of the embodiments of FIGS. 6, 7, 8 and 9.

Referring to FIG. 9, there is illustrated an embodiment 200 which is generally the same as the embodiments described above except for the fact that is incorporates a double set of burner-fresh-air-nozzle combinations 201 and 202, The burner and fresh air nozzle combinations 201 and 202 are arranged to heat the opposite sides of a single web 205. The diverging configuration of the tunnel 206 is similar to the diverging configuration of the tunnel 13 of FIG. 2 except that there are two walls 207 corresponding to the single wall 60 so that the diverging angle is between 4 and 8 degrees considering both of the walls 207. Also the portions 210 of the walls of the tunnel 206 correspond to the portion 61 of FIG. 2 and are arranged relative to the web at an angle of 30 minutes.

It should be understood that in many respects the principles inherent in the invention described and claimed in my copending application are also involved in the present invention, For example, the concept of heating the ink carrying surface much hotter than the web or sheet could stand for any period of time but removing the heat so quickly as to prevent the inside of the Web or sheet from reaching the surface temperature is a part of this invention as well as the invention of my copending application. It has been found that the present invention accomplishes this concept unexpectedly more effectively resutling in, for example, better moisture retention in the paper web as well as in other advantages such as less chance of blistering. Also because of faster drying, web speeds can be substantially increased over the device disclosed in my prior application thus even more effectively preventing the drier from being the weak link of the printing industry.

As an example of the effectiveness of the drier of the present invention it has been found that the drier of FIGS. l5 can deliver 100,000-150,000 B.t.u./sq. foot of surface being dried whereas most driers on the market deliver 10,000 B.t.u./ sq. foot. Most existing devices have a heat coefficient of 10 or in other words 10 B.t.u./ft. hr./ F. One embodiment of the present invention with a 1.5 p.s.i. air source has a heat coefficient of approximately 400 (40 to 1 ratio). This heat coefficient will increase with refinement and higher air pressures and temperatures.

While the invention has been illustrated and described in detail in the drawings and foregoing description, the same is to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive in character, it being understood that only the preferred embodiment has been shown and described and that all changes and modifications that come within the spirit of the invention and the scope of the claims are also desired to be protected.

The invention claimed is:

1. In apparatus for heating and drying comprising a gas burner, a fresh air nozzle positioned adjacent said gas burner, means for moving material past said gas burner and nozzle, said gas burner being arranged to direct its hot products of combustion at said material, said nozzle being arranged to flow a slab of fresh air directly at said material but also across the path of the products of combustion as they leave said gas burner so as to mix said fresh air and said products prior to their moving against said material, and means for providing fresh air to said nozzle at sufficiently high rate to cause the output thereof to prevent combustion of any volatile components in said material and to cause impingement of the mixture of fresh air and products against the material; the improvement which comprises a housing within which said nozzle and gas burner are mounted, said housing having a tunnel formed therein with the entrance inside of said housing and the exit opening out of said housing, said gas burner and fresh air nozzle being positioned to exhaust at the entrance to said tunnel and aimed in a direction which has a component in the direction of movement of said material whereby the mixture of the fresh air and the products of combustion flows through said tunnel in the same direction as said material.

2. In apparatus for heating and drying comprising a gas burner, a fresh air nozzle positioned adjacent said gas burner, means for moving material past said .gas burner and nozzle, said gas burner being arranged to direct its hot products of combustion at said material, said nozzle being arranged to flow a slab of fresh air directly at said material but also across the path of the products of combustion as they leave said gas burner so as to mix said fresh air and said products prior to their moving against said material; the improvement which comprises a housing within which said nozzle and gas burner are mounted, said housing having a tunnel formed therein with the entrance inside of said housing and the exit opening out of said housing, said gas burner and fresh air nozzle being positioned to exhaust at the entrance to said tunnel and aimed in a direction which has a component in the direction of movement of said material whereby the mixture of the fresh air and the products of combustion flows through said tunnel in the same direction as said material, said tunnel diverging from its entrance to its exit at an angle of between one and fifteen degrees.

3. In apparatus for heating and drying comprising a gas burner, a fresh air nozzle positioned adjacent said gas burner, means for moving material past said gas burner and nozzle, said gas burner being arranged to direct its hot products of combustion at said material, said nozzle being arranged to flow a slab of fresh air directly at said material but also across the path of the products of combustion as they leave said gas burner so as to mix said fresh air and said products prior to their moving against said material; the improvement which comprises a housing within which said nozzle and gas burner are mounted, said housing having a tunnel formed therein with the entrance inside of said housing and the exit opening out of said housing, said gas burner and fresh air nozzle being positioned to exhaust at the entrance to said tunnel and aimed in a direction which has a component in the direction of movement of said material whereby the mixture of the fresh air and the products of combustion flows through said tunnel in the same direction as said material, said gas burner being positioned between said nozzle and said material with its exhaust aimed at a more acute angle relative to the direction of movement of said material than the exhaust of said nozzle.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein said gas burner is arranged to exhaust its products of combustion in a direction which is almost parallel to the direction of movement of said material, said fresh air nozzle being positioned to exhaust its slab of fresh air in a direction which is at approximately 45 degrees to the direction of movement of said material.

5. In apparatus for drying printing ink and the like after such ink has been applied to a material, said apparatus including a gas burner, a fresh air nozzle positioned adjacent said gas burner, means for moving material in a given direction of movement past said gas burner and nozzle, said gas burner being arranged to exhaust its hot products of combustion at said material, said nozzle being arranged to exhaust a slab of fresh air at said material but also across the path of the products of combustion as they leave said gas burner so as to mix said fresh air and said products prior to their moving against said material; the improvement which comprises said fresh air nozzle being positioned to exhaust its slab of fresh air in a direction which has a component in the direction of movement of said material, said gas burner being positioned between said nozzle and said material 'with its exhaust aimed at a more acute angle relative to the direction of movement of said material than the exhaust of said nozzle.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein said gas burner is positioned as close to said material as possible without contacting said material as it moves through said drier.

7. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein said gas burner is arranged to exhaust its products of combustion in a direction which is almost parallel to the direction of movement of said material, said fresh air nozzle being positioned to exhaust its slab of fresh air in a direction which is at approximately 45 degrees to the direction of movement of said material.

8. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein said gas burner is arranged to exhaust its products of combustion in a direction which is almost parallel to the direction of movement of said material, said fresh air nozzle being References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 6/1940 Gessler 263-3 XR 7/1968 Wise 34l55 X JOHN J. CAMBY, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

